ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Human Rights Watch urged Ethiopian lawmakers Woyanne officials on Monday to reject legislation it says would slap major government restrictions on foreign aid groups and ban them from some activities.
Ethiopia’s [fake] parliament will debate the Charities and Societies Proclamation bill later this month.
The legislation would give the government greater control over foreign NGOs and ban them from work related to ethnicity, gender and children’s rights, Human Rights Watch said.
In a statement, the New York-based watchdog urged Ethiopian lawmakers to reject the law “that would criminalise human rights activity and seriously undermine civil society groups.”
It also called on donor governments to “speak out publicly against the bill.”
Although the bill has been revised twice since May 2008, the current version retains many of the most controversial provisions.
“The only reason to have such a repressive law is if it would be used to strangle Ethiopia’s few remaining independent voices,” said Human Rights Watch’s Africa director Georgette Gagnon.
“Donor governments should make clear to Ethiopia the Woyanne regime that enacting this law will threaten future funding,” she added.
The law would carry severe criminal penalties for violations, including three to five years of imprisonment for minor administrative violations, HRW said.
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FORUM | 1 Comment
Here we go again with one more western propaganda to make it look like there is some kind of conflict between Woyanne and their masters, this is Kabuki theater plain and simple. How can a puppet government who lives on the handouts of western neo-colonial regimes say to their masters you will not give me my life line. This is another of those sophisticated neo-colonial tricks designed to fool the people of Ethiopia. After Woyanne lost the fake elections of 2005 and went on a killing, maiming and imprisonment rampage did these neo-colonial instrument NGOs protest and withold their support for Woyanne? the answer is NO. Instead the real masters of Woyanne were running the show of inprisoning, intimidating and even bribing and blackmailing the imprisoned opposition politicians and in the end managed to splinter them into oblivion.
The Ethiopian people should not be fooled by these types of theatrics and start supporting the true freedom fighters in Ethiopia who are facing daily harship and sacrificing their lives for the sake of true freedom not blessed by western neo-colonial powers and their main instruments in Africa the NGOs. One can ask him/herself; how many years have these NGOs been operating in Ethiopia? and what have they done for the Ethiopian people despite using them to get more money for their operations, fatten Woyanne transportation companies coffers, spend lavishly in Addis Ababa’s hotels, restaurants and other glitzy hangouts, most of the money given to NGOs is overhead and the majority of their projects don’t bring long term sustained growth, that fits perfectly with the neo-colonial agenda. It is time truth is told. Thank you Mr. Elias for letting me say my piece.
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October 13th, 2008 at 1:01 PM